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St. John Providence Health System in Warren, Mich., reduced health care costs 22% by focusing its wellness plan on a small number of workers with chronic illness who accounted for half of its health spending. The program, which includes disease education and free nurse managers, has been expanded to other health care facilities under the Ascension Health umbrella and now is being offered to other businesses in the Detroit area.

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A wellness program at Kearney Public Schools in Nebraska has led to a 13% drop in student obesity, with rates at three elementary schools decreasing by about 25%. Elementary schools have used structured recess, increased use of fruits and vegetables as snacks, limited junk-food sales and brought physical education into the classroom as part of the program.

The Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance and Virgin HealthMiles are sponsoring the third annual National Employee Wellness Month in June, urging companies to offer incentive programs that help keep employees fit and healthy as a way to reduce health costs. Virgin HealthMiles' rewards program includes 40,000 people at 90 U.S. companies, at a corporate cost of $20 per employee.

Burke Inc. was rated a No. 1 Top Workplace in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky by listening to its employees' professional wants and needs and focusing on health with free screenings, a fitness center, basketball court and walking trail at company headquarters. CEO Jeff Miller says the company puts a "tremendous emphasis on wellness, and I'm a personal zealot of health and fitness."

U.S. researchers estimated that low education levels accounted for about 245,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2000 -- comparable to number of deaths due to heart attacks -- while another 176,000 deaths were attributable to racial disparities, among other findings. People ages 25 to 64 were more susceptible to the risks of poverty and low education compared with people age 65 and older, who can rely on Medicare, according to the study in the American Journal of Public Health.

Not all fats are bad, and omega-3 fatty acids, often found in fish, walnuts, eggs, canola oil and other foods, can reduce inflammation and protect the heart, nutritionists say. But registered dietitian Rachel Huber of the Cooper Institute in Dallas says that foods touted as having been fortified with omega-3s often may contain only insignificant amounts.